Glass annealing leer



Sept. 13, E. 3 LE MARE 1,877,674

GLASS ANNEALING LEER Filed Dec. 18, 1930 Patented Sept. 13, 1932 lUNITED, STATES A EN OFFICE EBITES'I. BBISTOW LE MARE, OF ST. HELENS,ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO BILKINGTON I BROTHERS LIMITED, LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND,A. COMPANY OF ENGLAND uGLASS ANNEALING LEEB l pplieation filed December18, 1830, Serial No. 503,199, and in Great Britain December 28, 1929.

This invention relates to glass annealing leers and particularly toleers through which glass is propelled by rotating rollers whichconstitute the bed of the leer.

It has been found that these rollers are' liable to distortion, and as aresult of their not running true, they tend .to deform the 1 planesurface of the glass transversely of the direction of its movementthrough the leer.

for the deformation to be flattened outbe fore the glass reaches thesolidification zone in the leer.

When, however, the deformation is formed in the region of thesolidification zone, it may be permanent, and if of large amplitude,may;

give rise to difiiculties in the subsequent treatment ofthe lass.

The object of t e present invention is to ensure that the risk ofdeformation of the glass surface in the region of the solidificationzone shall be minimized, and that any 5 deformation which occurs shallbe too small to be objectionable.

According to theinvention rollers in the :1 solidification zone areturned rap1dly, some i in a forward and others in a reverse direction,

the resultant speed of the rollers being a forward speed equal to thatof the rollers outside the said zone.

In the accompanying drawin' j Figure 1 shows diagrammaticallyinclevation a portion of the gearing for driving leer rollers accordingto this invention, with 1 intermediate portions broken away, the lowersection of the fi ure constituting a rightward extension of t e uppersection and Figure 2 is a diagrammaticplan of'the same, partly brokenaway, showing portions of the respective leerirollers.

Bevel gear wheels '1, mounted on the end of leer'r'ollers 13 are drivenby bevel gear wheels 2 on the shaft 3.

In the solidification zone, which is the por-. tion from A to B inFigure 1, the alternate rollers 15 have bevel gear wheels 4, driven bybevel gear wheels 5, mounted on the shaft 3, so as to turn the rollers15 with wheels 4 in the opposite direction to, and at four times thespeed of the rollers 13 with wheels 1.

y The other alternate rollers 14 have spur gear wheels 6 engagingv gearwheels 7 on L separate stub shafts which carry bevel gear -wheels 8engaging bevel gear wheels 9 on a shaft 10 driven cfrom'the shaft?) bythe spur gear wheels 11 and 12; The ratio of the gear wheels'll, 12, issuch that the rollers 14 with gear wheels 6 are turned in the samedirec- 50 tion as are the'rollers 13 with gear wheels 1, but at fivetimes the speed.

By these rollers the resultant forward speedof each pair of rollers 15,14, with gear wheels 4 and 6, is the speed of the rollers 13 55 withgear wheels 1, while each of the rollers 15, 14, is turning faster. I

The rapid rotation of these rollers not only lessens the effect on theglass of their distortion but also has the great advantage that" therollers which are. turned rapidly sufier less from distortion thanthoseturned slowly. The above-mentioned speeds are given by way of exampleonly and any speeds, faster than the normal speed of the rollers withgear wheels 1, may be'employed. Further, it is not necessary, though itis preferable, that the reverse-turning rollers -should alternate withthe forward turnin rollers, provided that there are in the solidi cationzone groups of rollers turning rapidly in the reverse direction andgroups of rollers turning still more rapidly in the forward direction,the resultant forward speed of all the said rollers being equal to thenormal forward speed of the rollers in the leer outside thesolidification zone. Having described my invention, I declare that whatI claim and desired to secure by Letters Patent is Roller bed for aglass annealing leer comprising a first group of rollers turning at a.speed corresponding to the speed of the glass, 1 second group of rollersturning at a, speed more than three times the speed of the first group,a third group of rollers, interspersed with the rollers of the secondgroup, turning backwardly at a speed more than twice the speed of thefirst group and a final group of

